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Health studies

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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) continuously conducts and reviews health studies on a variety of areas associated with the production, possession or use of nuclear substances. The information gathered in these studies serves to guide the CNSC in decisions affecting its regulatory framework.

Part of the CNSC's mandate is to provide objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public on nuclear-related health and safety topics. The following are highlights of that work.

Latest update

Fact sheet: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident(UPDATED)(August 2018) The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine was the largest uncontrolled radioactive release in history. The health consequences of radiation exposure from the accident have often been misunderstood. To clarify this, the CNSC has published a fact sheet based on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) 2008 Report entitled Health effects due to radiation from the Chernobyl accident and the UNSCEAR 2018 White Paper titled Evaluation of data on thyroid cancer in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident. The findings in these reports are based on approximately 30 years of follow-up.

Low radon exposures and lung cancer risk: joint analysis of the Czech, French, and Beaverlodge cohorts of uranium miners (Journal article)
It is well established that high radon exposures increase the risk of lung cancer mortality. The effects of low occupational exposures and the factors that confound and modify this risk are not clear and are needed to inform current radiation protection of miners. The risk of lung cancer mortality at low radon exposures (< 100 working-level months) was assessed in the joint cohort analysis of Czech, French, and Canadian uranium miners, employed in 1953 or later.

Health studies – topics

CNSC staff conduct health studies on various topics, including tritium, uranium mining and milling, other mining activities, nuclear energy workers and members of the general population. These studies are conducted in order to enable the effective management of radiation risks and to set regulatory limits that will protect workers and the public from ionizing radiation.

Useful tools

To assist readers in their understanding of our technical reports, the CNSC has put together a group of useful resources. These lay the foundation for understanding the different kinds of studies and highlight important factors to consider when reviewing a study. They provide details on the basics of topics like radiation, epidemiology and explain related terminology.

Hot topics and relevant third party research

CNSC staff constantly review literature from peer-reviewed journals as well as pertinent non-peer-reviewed literature to ensure that the most up-to-date information is used to support our regulatory framework. Comments and interpretations are provided here for selected topics.

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) recently published a report titled Sources, effects and risks of ionizing radiation: UNSCEAR 2017 Report. UNSCEAR regularly conducts reviews and evaluations of evidence from radiation epidemiology studies to assess health risks of radiation. This report summarizes the principles and criteria for ensuring the quality of the Committee’s reviews of epidemiological studies of radiation exposure and summarized the evidence from epidemiological studies of cancer risk due to low-dose-rate radiation from environmental sources.

Ontario Uranium Miners Cohort Study Report is an updated analysis of mortality and cancer incidence for a cohort of Ontario uranium miners exposed to radon decay products conducted by the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC).

The Eastern Athabasca Regional Monitoring Program (EARMP) has published a report titled Eastern Athabasca Regional Monitoring Program 2017/2018 Community Report. The report presents the 2017-18 results of the EARMP, which monitors the safety of traditionally harvested foods like water, berries, fish, moose, and barren-ground caribou in the seven northern Saskatchewan communities located downstream of uranium mining and milling operations in the Eastern Athabasca region.

The Northern Saskatchewan Population Health Unit has published two Northern Saskatchewan Health Indicators Reports (2004, 2011) and updates and publishes health monitoring chapters with the most up to date results on their website. CNSC staff has built a strong collaborative, knowledge sharing relationship with the Population Health Unit. You can access the reports here.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recently published a booklet titled Radiation: Effects and Sources. Its purpose is to answer three questions: What is radiation? What does radiation do to us? And where does radiation come from? Intended for the general public, the booklet is easy to understand and offers excellent graphics to help the reader better understand the basics of radiation. This booklet is largely based on previous UNEP reports and presents the most up-to-date scientific information from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

Fact sheet: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident
(August 2018) The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine was the largest uncontrolled radioactive release in history. The health consequences of radiation exposure from the accident have often been misunderstood. To clarify this, the CNSC has published a fact sheet based on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) 2008 Report entitled Health effects due to radiation from the Chernobyl accident and the UNSCEAR 2018 White Paper titled Evaluation of data on thyroid cancer in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident. The findings in these reports are based on approximately 30 years of follow-up.

These studies explore and describe the benefits of distributing KI pills in advance to citizens living within a 300-mile (483 kilometres) radius of a nuclear power plant, and the need for timely and correct consumption of these pills in the case of a nuclear accident. The studies indicate such preventative measures can greatly reduce the accumulation of radioiodines in the thyroid gland, as well as the resulting radiation dose. This is an essential measure, since thyroid cancer –, most specifically in children and infants – is one of the most frequently observed consequences of a nuclear accident. The studies also highlight the need for appropriate administrative policies and increased research on the topic of children and infant consumption of KI pills, to better understand both the effectiveness and the safety of these measures.

This recent international report issued by the NEA provides a factual account of how modern uranium mining is the most regulated and one of the safest and environmentally responsible forms of mining in the world. The report confirms that current mining practices and regulations protect the health and safety of the public, workers and the environment. The report uses case studies, which highlight the leading regulatory framework and practices applied in Canada, by the CNSC, provincial authorities and the uranium industry, throughout the lifecycle of a uranium mine.

A recent British case-control study has found that young children who were born or live near a nuclear power plant sometime between 1962 and 2007 do not have a greater risk of developing childhood leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The study was led by researchers from the Childhood Cancer Research Group in Oxford, England and published in the September 2013 edition of the British Journal of Cancer. The results draw the same conclusions as those recently published in the CNSC cancer study.

A recent study, led by Cancer Care Ontario and published in the September 2013 edition of the scientific journal Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada, has confirmed that tritium is not associated with an increased risk of radiation-sensitive cancers in Pickering, Ontario. This study is important because it isolates tritium-specific dose data. More often, tritium data is combined with all other radiation exposures. This study increases our understanding of cancer risks and low level tritium exposure.